Good News...Bad News

First the good news. REpower USA the wholly-owned subsidiary of a German wind power manufacturing company headquartered in Hamburg announced it is moving its HQ to downtown Denver from Portland Oregon. This is another great example of the emerging Renewable Range in Colorado which holds the promise to generate long term economic growth for the Denver Region. Its hard to know exactly when sector concentration reaches critical mass to create a self reinforcing cluster but these types of announcements show that Colorado is really making progress. Denver's geography in the center of the U.S. and the direct flights from DIA to Munich and Frankfurt clearly played key roles in the decision to move the HQ to Denver.

From the REpower Press Release 08/14/09

Steve Dayney, CEO of RePower USA

"Since 2007, we have managed our US wind energy business from a Portland, OR
office located near our initial projects in California, Oregon and Washington.
Today we are seeing our business grow rapidly to other regions of the US....To
maintain REpower’s future competitiveness and meet our customers’ needs in the
growing US marketplace, it is crucial to be strategically located and close to
all our customers and projects. Denver – centrally located, with an excellent
national and international transportation infrastructure and supportive business
climate, provides those characteristics we believe will help us succeed in
meeting our US business goals"

Now the bad news. First Data has moved its HQ back to Atlanta.